SORRENTO: THE TOWN, ITS HISTORY, WHAT TO SEE

SORRENTO, THE TOWN:

The enchanting landscape with its high cliffs, the superb views over the Gulf of Naples to Vesuvius, make Sorrento a traditional international holiday resort.
It is an ideal place to come on holiday, a great tourist attraction also for the vicinity of popular places easy to reach such as the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum, Naples, Capri, Positano, Amalfi and Ischia.
Sorrento coast is composed of rugged inaccessible cliffs alternated with pleasant beaches.
The town’s coastal area is divided in two villages: Marina Piccola, with the harbour for ferries and hydrofoils, and Marina Grande, with its lidos and beaches.


A FEW HISTORICAL INSIGHTS ABOUT SORRENTO:

Sorrento was probably founded by the Etruscans (VII century b.c.), a population coming from Tuscany, and later conquered by the Samnites (V century b.c.), native of Campania region. It eventually came under the Roman sphere influence, but with the fall of the Roman empire and the barbarian invasions, Sorrento suffered the same devastating fate as many other Roman towns in Campania. The town reached the height of its glory in the Middle Ages as a free maritime duchy, and even contested the supremacy of Amalfi and  Naples in the Upper Tyrrhenian Sea. After the long period of the Middle Age, Sorrento suffered the Spanish domination: the baroque style of so many churches is a visible heritage of that period. But the XVIII century and a part of the XIX century were an economical, social end cultural rebirth of Sorrento when the tourist vocation of this area was born and it was established with its inclusion in the so-called "Grand Tour", a journey through the most important Italian sights that every noble European son of those times had to make to complete his cultural, historical and literary formation. Thus, guests such as Byron, Keats, Scott, Dickens, Goethe, Wagner, Ibsen and Nitzsche came to stay in Sorrento in search of sun and inspiration.

WHAT TO SEE IN SORRENTO:

Some places in Sorrento of tourist attraction include:

• Piazza Tasso, formerly called Largo di Castello;
• the Villa Comunale;
• the public garden on the cliff top with a superb view over the Gulf of Naples;
• Marina Grande, a charming bay with a characteristic fishing village;
• the Romanesque style Cathedral dating from the 15th century;
• Regina Giovanna, the archaeological remains of a seaside villa.